My Butler (aka It's Always Been You)
by Valkyrie85
Summary: Fujitaka, the president to Asia's largest department chain store, brings home a boy from Hong Kong after his business trip. Syaoran, a dark, cold boy captures the heart of the bubbly, naive Sakura. Exactly what's Fujitaka thinking when he writes in his will that he wants the boy, who is not his son, to be his heir instead of Sakura? Enjoy a story full of secrets and deceits.


If you are a new reader of mine, thank you for giving this story a try. If you are an old reader, thank you for supporting this new story. My Butler focuses on family/romantic relationship and the pursuit of Syaoran and Sakura's dreams. Just to warn you, a story is not a story unless it has twists, happy moments and heartbreaks. This story will have a lot of deceptions, betrayals, heartbreaks, and of course, the build-up to the romantic SxS romantic scenes that everyone looks for.

**Summary:** Fujitaka, the president to Asia's largest department chain store, brings home a boy from Hong Kong after one of his business trips. Syaoran, a dark, cold, emotionless boy attracts the attention of the bubbly, naïve, and kind Sakura. Exactly what is Fujitaka planning? Join and read this story filled with lies and deceptions.

**My Butler (a.k.a. It's Always Been You)**

**Chapter 1**

Miyaki-san, with her sleek gray hair tied back in the usual neat bun, walk as fast as her legs and cane could possibly allow her, down the corridor and towards the little mistress's bedroom. A smile appears on her aging face when she pushes back the half-open door and finds the little mistress taking a nap peacefully within the arms of a gigantic teddy bear, whom she named Tadashi (loyal, true) or Tada for short. The bear was given to the then-3- years-old mistress by her father when he returned from his business trip to England.

Miyaki-san quietly approaches the sleeping figure, feeling hesitant to wake up the 5-year-old girl from her sweet dream. However, after a few minutes of watching her, she decides to wake her and tell her about the good news.

"Sakura-chan," Miyaki says as she shakes the tiny body gently, "wake up honey. You're father is going to arrive in half an hour."

Kinomoto Sakura opens her emerald-coloured eyes with trouble. She sits up from her bed, her two ponytails all messy from her nap, and rubs her eyes with her fingers.

"Sakura-chan, your father is home," Miyaki repeats, as she attempts to smooth out the child's soft auburn hair.

Sakura stops rubbing her eyes in an instant, all signs of tiredness erased from her system. She gazes up at her granny with glowing eyes. "Really, baa-chan?!" Her smile is so wide that her missing tooth from the bottom left is even shown.

"Yes, dear," Miyaki says, smiling. The child's smile is always contagious. She still can't seem to grasp the effects her charms, even though she's taken care of her for as long as the child's been born. Actually, she has taken care of the child even before she was born because she had served her mother, during her pregnancy. Unfortunately, Sakura's mother died because of a car accident 4 years ago.

Sakura jumps off of her bed in joy and wraps around her obaa-chan, a non-blood-related woman who is like both her mother and her grandmother. "We need to redo your ponytails so that your otousan won't think that I didn't take care of you while he was gone," Miyaki jokes while hugging the child back. In return, Sakura obediently nods her head up and down.

**Half an Hour Later**

"Daddy!" Sakura runs across the front lobby of her mansion and into the big arms of her father. Her high pony-tails bounce in the air as she approaches him. Kinomoto Fujitaka, a 30-something man who owns the largest chain department stores across Asia, picks his daughter up and spins her around in the air. "How is our Sakura doing today?" the man with reddish-brown hair and gentle brown eyes, which turn into half-moon shapes when he smiles, asks.

"Sakura missed daddy so much! Did you miss me?" Sakura asks him with a giggle. She wraps her arms around his neck and places her warm cheek against his.

"I sure did! That one month while I was gone felt like ten years." Fujitaka kisses Sakura.

Beside them, a woman loudly clears her throat. Fujitaka looks past Sakura to find his second wife, Kinomoto Sonomi, looking at them. Although there's a smile on her face, there is also hidden discontentment in her eyes. Her daughter, Kinomoto Tomoyo who is 5 years older than Sakura, stands beside Sonomi and shows the same combination of smile and disgust. Originally named Daidouji Sonomi, she used to be one of Sakura's mother's best friends before Kinomoto Nadeshiko passed away. After her death, Fujitaka married her and brought her and her daughter with her previous husband into the Kinomoto residence.

"Welcome back, my love!" Sonomi exclaims. She approaches the two of them while Fujitaka places Sakura back down on the floor and quickly embraces his wife for a deep kiss.

"Have you been well, Sonomi?" Fujitaka looks into his wife's eyes mesmerizingly. Tomoyo walks in between Sakura and Fujitaka and joins hands with her step father without any sound, like always. Afterwards, Fujitaka's attention completely leaves Sakura and turns to the other two. Poor Sakura is too naïve to understand that she is being left out and is too young to care. She sees past them and notices two of the maids carrying her father's suitcases into the mansion. Behind them, she recognizes a tall boy with a bruise on his forehead, emerging from the darkness outside.

He is much taller than Sakura, with messy chocolate-coloured hair and the coldest, most emotionless amber orbs Sakura has ever seen. Just looking at those eyes make Sakura shiver in discomfort. He is led by one of the maids into the house and towards the gathering crowd, but he keeps his distance and looks ahead of him at nothing in particular.

He wears a pair of dirty ripped black pants and a yellow-stained white t-shirt. On his left wrist is a black leather wristlet that, to Sakura, is dull and ugly because it's not in her favourite colour, pink. There is something interesting about the boy. Although he does not talk to anyone and the aura that surrounds him is so dark that no matter how much sunlight one shines on him, the darkness will not go away, Sakura also feels an indescribable sense of sadness emitting from him.

As Sakura stares at him curiously from afar, the lanky boy notices her and stares back with his cold eyes. His expression is animus towards Sakura, but Sakura is not affected by it. She moves through the gathering maids in the mansion to get to the boy. As she nears, the boy stiffens and takes a step back. It's as if the boy has never been in such close contact with a girl before. Sakura pulls out a piece of hard candy wrapped in pink plastic wrapper and offers it to the boy with a huge grin. "Do you want a candy?" she asks with a friendly smile.

The boy looks down at her small hand for a few seconds before slapping it away with his, coldly. Then, the boy walks away from her to stand in the other corner of the room. Sakura is shocked at first, but she doesn't give up. She follows the boy to the other side and questions, "What's your name? How old are you? My name is Sakura and I'm five."

The boy ignores her. He leans against the wall and again, stares at the crowd without really looking at anything in particular.

"Are you one of the maid's son? Where are you from? Do you have any brothers or sisters?" Sakura continues to ask but receives no response.

She jumps up and down and waves her hand in front of the boy's face to call for his attention. "Hello?! I'm talking to you!" When she starts feeling tired, she stops jumping. She frowns, not understanding why the boy doesn't answer her questions. Moving towards the wall beside him, she looks in the same direction and tries to figure out what he's looking at. Straight ahead, she sees her step-sister Kinomoto Tomoyo, still holding onto Fujitaka's hand and conversing happily with him.

Tomoyo, well-known for her beauty even at the age of ten, has waist-length wavy hair, which is always braided behind her back, and pale white skin. She dances well, sings well, draws well, and studies well. She is so perfect that Sakura is jealous of her talents, but at the same time glad that she is her older sister.

Sakura grins mischievously and nods her head in understanding. "Do you like my sister?" she looks up and asks the boy.

Before she can hear his answer, she hears her baa-chan calling her name. "Sakura-chan! There you are!" Suddenly, the room goes quiet. The maids clear their way from the main entrance so that only the family is left. Sakura looks across the room and sees her baa-chan standing beside her parents and Tomoyo and pointing at her. "Come here, my dear. Bring the boy with you!"

Sakura looks at the boy one more time and offers her small hand to him. Without looking at her, he moves away from the wall and walks towards the others. Sakura, feeling sad that she is rejected again, follows behind slowly.

"Let me introduce you to someone I have brought back from Hong Kong," Fujitaka says to the family, putting his hand on the boy's shoulder. The boy shakes it off, to the shock of everyone except Sakura and Fujitaka, and takes a step back with his eyes on the floor. Despite his behaviour, Fujitaka continues in a light tone, "This is Li Xiao Lang. His Japanese name is Li Syaoran. I found him at a Japanese orphanage in Hong Kong during my trip. Long story short, he will be living with us starting from today."

Fujitaka smiles his half-moon smile at the family, waiting to see a similar response from them.

"Have you…adopted him?" Sonomi asks uncertainly. She scrutinizes the boy from head to toe and smells a light stench coming from him.

"No, no. He is just living with us for now," Fujitaka assures her.

"But why, otousan?" Tomoyo asks Fujitaka in confusion. Sakura has been watching Syaoran's action the whole time instead of the conversation, and she notices that as soon as Tomoyo speaks, he looks up from the floor. She is so sure that the boy must have feelings for her sister, and she is going to ask him again. Maybe tomorrow, she thinks to herself.

"I will explain to you all later because I'm very tired from the trip right now," Fujitaka dismisses with a wave of his hand. He covers a hand over his yawn and saunters up the stairs towards his bedroom.

"Bu—" Sonomi and Tomoyo both argue in unison but are cut off by Fujitaka.

"Sonomi, why don't you come and start the bath for me?" Fujitaka called from upstairs. "And Miyaki-chan, could you please take Syaoran to his room?"

Miyaki nods in understanding. "I will, Fujitaka-sama."

"Daddy! How old is he?" Sakura calls out before her father is out of sight.

"He's 10!" Fujitaka winks and waves bye to his daughter.

As Sakura turns, she greets the new family member, "Hi Syaoran-kun!" But, she realizes that Syaoran has already followed Miyaki out of the entrance hall.

* * *

**Valkyrie85:** The first chapter, like all of the first chapters in my stories, usually starts off slow. It's what I call an intro-chap. What I would like you to take note of is the relationship between Sonomi &Tomoyo and Fujitaka. Do you think these two are like the typical mean step-daughter and second wife from Cinderella or do you think they are different (nice, actually love Fujitaka and Sakura)?

Some of you may be wondering if this story will focus on the childhood of Sakura and Syaoran for the most of the story. Don't worry, it won't. The story will move into their adult lives a few chapters into the story, and then it will get very interesting. Actually, even the childhood of these two will be interesting as well because it will reveal a lot of secrets.

This story will most likely be just 10-15 chapters long. I promise it will not take as long as All I Want Is You to finish. I promise…

Anyways, stay tuned! Thanks for reading! Oh...AND REVIEW!

Val ( I recently made a facebook page to keep you updated on this story and my other stories. If you want, click the link on my profile page and like the page!)


End file.
